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Microsoft is planning a quiet revolution in the way that games are streamed and installed onto Xbox One and Xbox One X. The new system - known internally as Intelligent Delivery - aims to save hard drive space and reduce download times by allowing users to only download the assets they'll actually need, as opposed to the complete game package. The platform holder has already dropped some hints about this functionality, confirming that Xbox One users won't need to download X's 4K assets, but the execution goes beyond that, being flexible enough even to support multi-disc releases - not currently supported on Xbox One.Based on documentation seen by Digital Foundry, Intelligent Delivery was initially revealed to game-makers at Microsoft's XFest developer event earlier this year, and its execution relies upon developers adapting the way they master their titles. Essentially, the concept involves splitting game content into 'chunks' of data and then adding tags to them. Multiple tags can be attached to a chunk, and they can be device-specific or language-specific, for example. In the case of the latter, this means that game audio or cutscenes in non-relevant languages don't need to be downloaded - Intelligent Delivery could, in theory, install just the assets applicable to your region, with other languages an optional 'on demand' download, accessible via the Xbox One dash.
In terms of the actual impact language-specific installs will have, the space saved on the hard drive - not to mention the download time - will vary on a game by game basis. However, according to Microsoft, language-specific chunks have particular relevance to sports titles, where the audio assets often take up the majority of a game's full install size. The platform holder describes the potential savings here as 'massive'.
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